You Are My Home
by WaterInk
Summary: 6years after the manga,a past nightmare reappears which brings the Kenshingumi back together.Given a 2nd chance,will Sano and Megumi finally admit their long harbored feelings and find each other's heart's nest for good or is it Bye2 4ever?SxM
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first ever published story. I've always loved SanoMeg pairing since I saw RK more than 10 years ago and I'm sad that their relationship was kinda left hanging, so I wrote stories about them to satisfy my frustration. Anyway,Thanks for reading! :D

DISCLAIMERS: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin...

Chapter One : A Fox's Life

_" Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone" ~ Maya Angelou_

(Megumi's POV)

In Aizu.. a certain lady doctor was sadly contemplating her life . Thinking about the past , the present and her future.

It has been six lonely, agonizing years since she moved back to Aizu to look for her missing family and with the hope of finding even one of them. While in Aizu she worked at a hospital owned by a family friend of theirs. Though she misses her life and her friends back in Tokyo, she just couldn't stay there. Kenshin and Kaoru are happily married and it seems that everyone else is happy too. However to fill her yearning (somehow) for her friends back in Tokyo,she visits them twice a year just to stay in touch and re-lived the good ole days when they were still together, her , Kenshin , Kaoru, Yahiko, Dr. Genzai, Ayume , Suzume and that roosterhead Sanosuke.

Well, speaking of Sanosuke…"What has that idiot been doing all this time? It has been more than five years since he left Japan . Judging from the letter he sent at their spring reunion, he seems to be having fun travelling to different places. Not that she knows more than that, he writes to their friends at the Kamiya Dojo but he never really wrote to her. He doesn't even ask about her, well that's what she thought. She doesn't even know if he got married already or if he'd been busy dating girls here and there." I doubt it if girls wouldn't be attracted to him, he is quite good looking and is a good man. Even though he is brash, aggressive and an Idiot most of the time, there's just something in him that girls would find attractive in a guy."

She sighed in agreement to her words. Back then,she would never admit these kinds of thoughts about Sanosuke. But whatever it is that made her realize this,she opted to ignore it. "I should never entertain these thoughts about him or about any other guy." She sighed again and rolled on her futon to cuddle herself , not noticing the tears rolling down her porcelain cheeks…

"I'm lonely, alone and lonely…I am never going to be happy. When was the last time I even felt true happiness, ever since I lost my entire family, I have been miserable and had to find ways to survive with the hope that one day I will see them again. Why do I have to experience all these?"

She buried her face in the pillow and cried her heart out. Balling her small fists,she threw hard punches at the pillows letting her emotions take over her now. There would be no one to hear or see her this way, nobody would see her weakness, because she has no one right now except herself. Nobody would hold her like her mother would every time she is sad and nobody would comfort her the way her father would and assure her that everything would be alright.

She laid back on the futon, wiping her tears away. Beautiful but Empty cinnamon brown eyes stared at the ceiling , eyes with the look of coldness and nothingness. " Am I bitter?" Megumi began to ask herself. "Yes, maybe I am. Why? What have I done to deserve this? I mean I know I did awful things before with the opium thing but was it my fault? None of those things would happen if I wasn't left alone, if I didn't lose all of you. I wouldn't have to suffer this much. Why did you leave me? I wish had died with all of you . I wish that Kanryuu had killed me or that baka roosterhead didn't stop me from killing myself. I wish Kenshin, Kaoru and Yahiko didn't try to save me..." Tears started to flood her eyes again but this time she held herself back. She brushed tears away with her hands and in low voice,bitter voice, told herself. "Crying wouldn't fix my life."

The coldness of the autumn night breeze began to creep on her slender body. Slowly, it started to devour her soul and freeze her already cold heart. Men were right, She is cold... yes she is and she doesn't care. She just dreams of disappearing in a blink of an eye as if she never existed. She just doesn't care about her life anymore…nobody did and nobody ever will.

A/N: Megumi is OOC and bitter here because I'm trying to show that she is human too. She has weaknesses; she must have felt sad,lonely and a bit bitter all those years. Every person has it's own moments of breaking down. No matter how strong that person may seem to be, they could still crumble... I hope you like it!...thanks for reading !mwah


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks Roosterboy,Hitokiri Angel and to everyone who read.

I felt the need for Megumi to show her weakness as a person because she is usually portrayed as tough and mature. I do imagine,she also crumbles at times but she just doesn't show it.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

Chapter Two: A Rooster's Life

"_No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth." ~Robert Southey_

(Sanosuke's POV)

Somewhere in the middle of the ocean, a certain rooster head was feeling melancholic. "Damn!" He cursed himself for feeling this way. He doesn't understand but he misses his friends back home. He misses Kenshin, Kaoru,Yahiko, Dr. Gensai , Ayume and Suzume, Katsu and mostly Megumi." Heck! why would I miss that fox?" He stared blankly at the vast ocean ahead of him and sighed heavily. He then brought his hand up and smiled." That fox is going to be happy when she sees that my hand has fully healed and that I don't get into a lot fights as much as before...Well, not if I don't need to, but hey! I'm still Sagara Sanosuke, former Zanza... Who doesn't back off from any one...Hahah."

The sun is high above the sky now, as Sanosuke looked up, he squinted his eyes from the piercing rays and looked away. Too hot from where I am now, it must be autumn now back home. Because he travels a lot with the ship he is employed with, he has learned of the different seasons in other places. He was even amazed when he was able to go to a country that doesn't have the four seasons. He even joked it's summer all year round in that place. He hopes to tell his friends back home about all his adventures and misadventures when he gets back.

Sighing again, he hid himself in a spot where the sun couldn't reach him. He moved to lay down in the wooden floor deck of the ship and closed his eyes. Just like the old times, he remembers himself lying down on the porch at the Kamiya Dojo, listening to Kaoru and Yahiko practicing kendo. I could remember Ayume and Suzume playing with the soap bubbles while Kenshin is doing laundry as always. Then there's Megumi who flirts with Kenshin with every chance she gets. She likes to get on Kaoru's nerves. Well, i don't really know however I admit that it's quite fun to see Jou-chan get jealous of Megumi though I don't like the way that fox flirts with Kenshin. "Poor Kenshin! caught between the fox and the racoon hahaha" Sano laughs at the memory as he pictured Kaoru yelling and hitting Kenshin with a bokken when she gets jealous and mad.

He continued to go down memory lane and laughed again when he remembered Yahiko " That brat ". He's sometimes oblivious to the fate that awaits him, when he makes "ugly" remarks at his teacher. Jou-chan and Yahiko are like cat and mouse when they fight, they couldn't get along and it's just amusing to watch.

What If Jou-chan could see me now, just lying around like this. I bet she would yell at me like"You LAZY FREELOADING rooster head, why don't you make yourself of use here!" And I will just grin at her and before I could run, she had already hit me with a bokken —ouch! (Remembering the hard bokken). Jou-chan is really scary when she's mad. When she's in that mood I usually take a quick exit before she tells me to pay her for the money I recently borrowed or else I'll have to clean the dojo. Whenever Jou-chan acts like that Megumi is always nearby to make snide comments about me. In the end, It's me and the fox arguing all over again. What the hell! I even missed having a banter with the fox. I usually make it a point to tease her and get on her nerves, I really enjoy it. She looks so cute when she gets mad. Yahiko would always tease us we're like a married couple fighting. We both get embarrassed and flustered by his comment so he gets a slap from the fox and a punch from me. I don't really mind Yahiko's teasing but I don't want Megumi to think I'm enjoying it, so I somewhat pretend to be mad too. Now I admit,I kinda missed it. It's always nice to see a flustered fox.

Sanosuke sighed and then smiled. He realized just how much he missed home.

"Nah, no need to be emotional now Sanosuke ne! "He told himself. They are all just doing fine. Kenshin and Kaoru are happily married now and maybe they already have a kid or even kids. He could imagine Kenshin being chased by a bokken by Kaoru with a kid in tow. Now, That would be funny. And Well,Yahiko is now a teenager and might now be dating Tsubame...Wondering if he brings her to my old apartment which I gave to him before I left Japan.

Thinking of his life back in Tokyo, he was never able to bring any girl to his pad and he wonders why when he could have any girl he wanted. Well (acording to him), no girl wouldn't fall for his charms, maybe except for a weasel, a raccoon and a certain foxy doctor who would always tell him that no girl in her right mind would date him.

He smiled at the memories.

And He's thinking about Megumi again. " Damn! why is that woman so difficult?" He didn't realize that he had voiced his thoughts out loud until he heard someone laughed and settled down beside him. He opened his eyes and glared at his friend.

The man just laughed at him " Who's difficult?... Is this the one making you smile like a lovestruck teenage boy?" he asked him with a bit of playfulness in his eyes.

Sano lazily stretched his arms and legs and yawned. "Oh, nothing! I was just thinking of my friends back in Tokyo.." he answered tiredly at the man who just disturbed his peace.

"Oh, from the look you had in your face, I doubt it. So who did you think about? He looked at Sanosuke with curiosity.

Sano sighed heavily "All my friends back home. I miss them...That's all."

" Really? Missing someone in particular maybe…" His friend eyed him.

"Oh man, you're Impossible!..." Sano shot him an irritated look with a bit of frown on his face.

Jose is Sano's closest friend and colleague in the ship. They don't speak the same language but both of them had learned to speak English. He is Spanish and they met in the US at a brawl in a bar when Sano help him from the gang who wanted to take his money. That's how they became friends. During that time, Jose who works at a cargo ship, introduced Sanosuke to the Captain and that's how Sano ended up having a job at a cargo ship.

"Maybe You have something you wanna tell me ?" his voice reflected that of a brotherly concern for a friend.

The former gangster just shrugged and smiled " nope, nothin' really. I just really miss home, it's been almost six years since I left, you know…"

" Yeah, I know how that feels. I've been gone from home for awhile now too, I wonder if Maria, the girl I told you about,is still waiting for me. I promise her that when I get back I will marry her and that we will never be apart again. I'm just saving money for our wedding and for our life together. I promise her I'd give her the world, ya know"

"So she's still waiting for you all these years? Well, I really wish both of you the best of luck." With that being said Sanosuke gave him his most sincere smile. The ex-gangster wants the best for his friend. He wants him to be happy. He is like a brother to him, just as Kenshin will always be.

Jose appreciated his friend's concern for him and he wished he could say the same words to him. Sano had told him about Capt. Sagara and the Sekihoutai. He also knew about Sayo, a girl he met but died just shortly after they became friends. In fact, he knew all about Sanosuke's friends back in Tokyo. He talks about them a lot. Sano talks about how he met Kenshin and the others and how he loves to tease and argue with Megumi often. Jose has been wondering about this Megumi, because Sano likes to talk about her the most. Sano seems to be very fond of her.

Jose knows Sanosuke very well, he is a carefree guy who loves fighting,gambling and drinking but all through the years he has seen him matured and even though he hasn't seen Sano with a steady and serious girlfriend, He feels that the guy is genuine when he falls in love. In their travels together, He has never seen Sano fall for a girl so badly. His involvements were all just casual and sexual. The usual life of a Seafarer. New place, New girl. But good for him, he is loyal to his one love, Maria.

In their years of travelling together, he could feel Sano's loneliness. There's something or someone in his mind that has been haunting him. Shaking his head,Jose looked at the asleep Sano and murmured something enough for him to hear because he knows he was just pretending to be asleep. "You may not admit it to yourself Sanosuke, but you are in-Love, the truth is you've been in-love with this person for years now."

"Huh!" Confused as he was,he tried ignore what Jose just said to him.

His friend shook his head and patted him on the shoulder then left him alone so he could think again.

TBC

notes:

fox- sano's nickname for megumi

jou-chan- sano's nickname for kaoru

racoon-nickname for kaoru too

A/N: They say "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"... and I love Sanosuke.

...thanks for reading! ;) HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: hello everyone! HAPPY NEW YEAR!...This chapter is for Kenshin because he is the glue that binds them all. Without him, there is no kenshingumi.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin

Chapter Three: An Ex-Samurai's Life

_"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. "~Thomas Jefferson_

(Kenshin's POV)

Somewhere in Tokyo, in a place called Kamiya Dojo...a redhead Former Rurouni is busy thinking how grateful he is of his new found life and love in Kaoru and their son, Kenji. He couldn't keep himself from smiling at the thought that a former Battousai such as him would found happiness despite the past he had.

Kaoru had accepted him wholeheartedly without questions and doubts of his past and he loved her for all that she is.

Kenshin had just finished doing the laundry and was now hanging the clothes to dry. He looked over at the quiet yard and remembered the time when they were all still together. It was noisy and chaotic but it was a lot of fun. And they were happy. He couldn't stop a tear from falling down his cheeks but he missed them, the family who had accepted and cared for him and whom he loved and cared back deeply.

The former battousai stopped a moment to wipe a tear " Oro, having a family of your own makes you soft ne!" he told himself, he could just imagine Sanosuke telling him that. He smiled thinking where his bestfriend might be now. The last time he wrote a letter to them was more than a year ago, that was when they had their reunion , he was in Mongolia at that time. He would've wanted Sanosuke to be his best man at his wedding but guess no one knows where he was then. " I just hope he is doing really well and that he has found happiness too." Kenshin took a moment to sit down at the porch and brushes away the thought of Sanosuke being married now " I doubt it he is, I know Sanosuke ,what he thinks and feels, I can read him like a book. He doesn't need to tell me but I know. He is a free spirit with a good heart and will always be loyal to his friends. If he has gotten married he would let us know."

He leaned his back on the floor and stretched his tired muscles "Doing laundry all these years is even tiring than sword training ." he laughed at himself realizing how a feared battousai of years ago is now doing laundry.

A few days ago, he had recalled Kaoru telling him something about Megumi. Well, he hopes she is fine. But he doubts she is not, that she is. She is alone. Megumi had gone back to Aizu to search for her missing family only to find out they had all died and she is the only Takani survivor. She had hoped of finding them but confirming the truth only shattered her dreams of being reunited with them.

After their reunion last spring, Megumi stayed with them for months to take care of the the Oguni Clinic. That was when he noticed that she was not in her usual foxy self. Maybe she had changed and had matured but this one doesn't think so because she had displayed the same behavior when we visited her and told her Sanosuke had left Japan. And the same behavior still when she was deeply saddened upon learning of Dr. Gensai's not so good condition. He had been a father to her. Dr. Gensai had to leave and stay with his sister in Izu together with his two granddaughters for some time to recover and had left the clinic to her.

After their wedding ceremony and celebration, Megumi stayed with them in Tokyo for a few weeks before heading back to Aizu. While staying with them at the Dojo, Kenshin felt that there's something bothering Megumi. It was not anger or jealousy towards them but it was something more. Megumi had told Kenshin and Kaoru that she is happy for both of them and he could feel her sincerity. Being a swordsman for years taught him to read and feel people but he definitely saw something in Megumi's cinnamon brown eyes that says of her life and feelings otherwise. "Well, I'll talk to Kaoru about her again." the red haired man thought.

As for Yahiko, "I'm very happy for him and Tsubame . They are getting along really well. Few years from now, they will eventually get married and have a family of their own." Yahiko was just ten years old when they met and now he has become a handsome teenager. The brat,who stole his sword before to prove himself, was actually now a very good sensei at the Dojo.

These recent years he has lived a peaceful and happy life, though he has wielded his sakabatou to Yahiko, it doesn't mean that his reflexes as a swordman has worn off, so when he felt someone's ki coming towards the dojo, He knew had to get himself ready.

TBC

notes:

Izu is the place where Yutarou is from and where Dr. Gensai's sister lives.

Sakabatou- kenshin's reversed-edge sword

A/N: thanks for reading! ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!


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